We arrived in Atlanta on the night of June 2nd and have been running ever since! Our week of preparation for the summer mission trips included hours of navigation on the seven lanes of the deadly Atlanta interstate, some sightseeing in the city, getting every detail imaginable in order for the summer, and of course meeting our new best friends for the summer.

Jason Pope and Daynes Viera are both soldiers in the Salvation Army and are going to be our closest contacts for the time that we are here. We also met Captain Platt, who is the pastor of Lakewood, the small community church we will be spending time at.

Throughout the week, we spent nights at Jason’s sister’s house, Jason and his wife’s house, Daynes’ house, and a small house that the church uses for offices. We are so blessed to have each and every one of these people on our team. They are some of the most self-sacrificing, accommodating people we have ever met. During the last few days we have also gotten to spend some time with Miss Lynn, the lady who graciously agreed to cook for our teams every dinner for eight weeks.

We also spent a few days meeting the specific people each of us would be working with in our areas. Matt and Krista have five outreach locations: the 24/7 Gateway Center, which is a sort of half-way house for homeless people, giving them a chance to find jobs or just get a break from the streets in order to get back on their feet; the Atlanta Food Bank, one of the largest in the state, where food and other supplies are sorted and distributed to other shelters; Capitol View Kid’s Club, a program for children that live in the Capitol View Apartments, mostly refugee Vietnamese families; Jonesboro Kid’s Club, a trailer park community mostly Hispanic, Black and Vietnamese; and a DayCamp that is run at Lakewood Church. 
 I will be overseeing two different construction sites; one at Capitol View Apartments, and one at Sol Luna Apartments. Capitol View is associated with Salvation Army, who has been running the Kid’s Club that Krista will be coordinating this summer. As I said before, it is mostly Vietnamese refugee families, and low-income black families. The manager is Bob Leathers – I have never seen a manager with such a heart for his tenants. Mr. Leathers has been very helpful and giving in his willingness to help supply us with things that we need.

We will be doing some painting of dumpsters, retaining walls, and the apartments themselves. The Sol Luna Apartments are owned and operated by The Initiative for Affordable Housing, run by Lisa Wise lives with the mission to provide housing for extremely low-income and low-income families. They own four apartment complexes and 20 houses that are available to these families. Here we will be clearing a walking trail for the residents. This will involve building a bridge and clearing about a half mile of overgrown bushes and vines. 

Every day we became more and more excited about our time here, the upcomin mission trips and all the teams from accross the country who will be serving here.

-Adrienne